Process of ornamenting wood surfaces



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.-

ADOLPH W'ILOKE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. l

PROCESS OF ORNAMENTING WQOD SURFACES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 566,046, dated August18, 1896. Application filed Tune 9, 1396. Serial No. 594,879- (Nospecimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ADOLPH WILOKE, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of OrnamentingFinished WVood Surfaces and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention relates to a novel process of ornamenting finished Woodsurfaces, the object being to provide a means for ornamenting thesurface of a piece of wood after it has been completely finished inimitation of inlaid work; and it consists in the various stepshereinafter described and claimed.

Heretofore it has been the custom to ornament the panels of a piano orother fine furniture by engraving, inlaying, carving, or scrollsawing.This class of work is very expensive and tedious, and when such designis cut in basrelief the background cannot be smoothly and evenlyfinished, owing to the difficulty in obtaining a perfectly smooth woodsurface where the same is cut away.

My process consists in first producing a stencil in thin sheet metal,inwhich the design, which it is desired shall appear upon the surface ofthe wood, remains, so that when laid upon the finished surface of thewood the design in the stencil will cover the surface which is to remainin relief in the panel. This stencil is covered upon its inner face withsticky substance, such as shoemakers wax or the like, which will neverdry, but has sufficient adhesiveness to hold the stencil firmly to thewood. The whole surface of the stencil must be evenly and completelycovered with such non-drying adhesive substance, and is then applied tothe finished surface of the panel under pressure. In this manner no freespace is left between the stencil and the surface underneath the same.An acid mixture, which will eat away the varnish, is then applied to theentire surface of the panel, thus eating away the portions unprotectedby the stencil. The adhesive substance between the panel and the stencilprevents any of the acid mixture from reaching the finished surfaceunderneath the stencil, thus insuring a clearcut design correspondingexactly with the stencil. The acid mixture eats away the varnish to thesurface of the wood, upon which it has no effect, and as the surface ofthe wood is perfectly smooth before varnish is applied, a perfectlysmooth background for the design is assured. This background isthoroughly cleaned and coloring-matter applied thereto according to thebackground desired for the design. When this coloringmatter is perfectlydry, the stencil is removed. Any adhesive substance clinging to thesurface of the panel is then carefully removed without injury to thehigh polish thereof. In this manner I am enabled to obtain a verybeautiful and clear-cut design at smaller expense than the most ordinaryhand-cut design can now be produced, and am also enabled to make anynumber of exact duplicates. My process is designed, of course, for

reproducing a certain design upon a large number of surfaces.

I claim as my invention The process of ornamenting finished woodsurfaces, which consists in first applying a stencil to such surface bymeans of a nondrying adhesive substance, applying an acid mixture to theportions of the surface unprotected by the stencil, cleaning suchunprotected portion of the surface, applying coloring-matter thereto andthen removing the stencil and the adhesive substance from the remainingfinished surface of the wood.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ADOLPH IVILCKE.

WVitnesses:

RUDOLPH WM. LOTZ, WM. B. SNoWHooK.

